"Best Budget DAC" - What Hi-fi? Magazine, "Awards 2010" Issue

"One of the Very Best Around"

The rDac-kw is the wireless version of Arcam's popular rDac. You can order the rDac-kw with the rWand dongle for wireless connection to your iPod/iPhone/iPad or with the rWave dongle for wireless connection to your Mac or PC. You can also order the rDac-kw all by itself and buy either or both rWand and rWave dongles separately. That gives you lots of choices!

The First and Still Moving Forward

Soon after the birth of the CD player, Arcam was the very first company to add an outboard digital-to-analog converter as a sonic upgrade. Not only was the result a dramatic increase in sound quality, but Arcam’s ‘black box’ DAC went on to define a whole new product category that revolutionized digital audio playback. In recent years digital files and streaming audio have widely broadened the appeal of the outboard DAC. In response, Arcam has underlined its position at the forefront of this technology with the new rDac-kw.

"A Must-Audition Product"

"This outstanding digital-to-analogue converter sound superb with plenty of media friendly inputs," notes England's What Hi-fi? magazine, which honored the rDAC the title of "Best Budget DAC" in its "Awards 2010" issue. "The market's not short of little DACs ready to bring your digital music collection to life. The rDAC, though, is one of the very best around: built sturdily, specified generously and, crucially, sounding every penny of the asking price."

"If you are in the process of going 'post CD' in your current system, then the rDAC is a must-audition product," reports Ed Selley in Issue 338 of Hi-fi Choice magazine. "It is able to achieve excellent results with computer audio and the lack of fuss or hassle – making it work with a variety of computers – bodes well for widespread compatibility."

"Three Big Things Going for It"

"The Arcam rDAC has three big things going for it, very good sonic performance, reasonable price, and great exterior design," says Chris Connaker in his November 22, 2010 review for Computer Audiophile. "The rDAC should be a really nice addition to nearly all computer audiophile's systems."

Asynchronous USB Technology

Internet radio, set-top boxes, and game stations receive a dramatic increase in sound quality via the rDAC-kw's coaxial or optical inputs. PCs and Mac computers running music programs such as iTunes or Windows Media Player can feed the rDac-kw via its USB input; special re-clocking circuitry has been deployed almost eliminating the jitter (timing inaccuracies) and noise usually associated with music in the computer environment.

To achieve this Arcam has teamed up with dCS (Data Conversion Systems), licensing their Asynchronous USB Technology. The dCS technology allows a precision clock to drastically reduce the level of jitter from USB music sources and deliver a massive improvement in sound quality over the standard USB 'adaptive' system. The design of precision clock circuits and general digital and analog audio engineering are some of Arcam's key strengths. The results from the highly affordable rDac are stunning regardless of the digital audio source.

Wireless Connectivity

It's easy to stream audio to your rDac-kw. Use the rWave wireless USB dongle to stream audio from our Mac or PC, or use the rWand wireless dongle to stream audio from your iPod, iPhone, or iPad.

"Best Budget DAC" - What Hi-fi? Magazine

"The market's not short of little DACs ready to bring your digital music collection to life. The rDAC, though, is one of the very best around: built sturdily, specified generously and, crucially, sounding every penny of the asking price."

- What Hi-fi? magazine, "Awards 2010" issue

"The rDAC marks a welcome return to an increasingly important product category from one of the original pioneers in the field. Just as importantly, the wait has also been worthwhile."

"The arrival of well thought out and well-implemented Asynchronous USB at this price point is a welcome shake up to the market. That the rDAC has this and regular connections running through a desirable new DAC chip in a well-built box is even more welcome."

"If you are in the process of going 'post CD' in your current system, then the rDAC is a must-audition product. It is able to achieve excellent results with computer audio and the lack of fuss or hassle – making it work with a variety of computers – bodes well for widespread compatibility."

- Ed Selley, Hi-fi Choice magazine, Issue 338

"The Arcam rDAC has three big things going for it, very good sonic performance, reasonable price, and great exterior design… Throw in the wonderful industrial design of the rDAC and the price could have been much higher. The rDAC should be a really nice addition to nearly all computer audiophile's systems. Based on my experience Mac users should have no trouble with the rDAC's directly coupled digital interfaces. I certainly enjoyed my time with the DAC partly because listening through it didn't feel like much work. We've all heard those components that make our ears bleed. This DAC is not one of them."